How To Get Rid of Earwigs

Earwigs are nasty little bugs with pincers at the front of their bodies. Earwigs can help gardeners by feasting on one of their favorite foods – aphids. Ok, so they have one good trait, but nobody wants them in their house. The bad outweighs the good in the garden too! While munching on other damaging insects, the earwigs will also damage delicate leaves and stems. While not dangerous or harmful to humans, cohabitating with earwigs is just not something most homeowners are willing to do. Eke! There are several methods that are effective in the battle against earwigs.

Diatomaceous Earth

Inspect the room or rooms for earwigs.

Liberally sprinkle diatomaceous earth along the window sills, under baseboard heating or radiators, across door sills and around the perimeter of the room. Most earwigs enter homes through the basement or crawl space so make sure to dust those areas well.

Earwig Traps

Trapping earwigs with a homemade trap is both easy and effective.

Lay a 2 inch thick layer of newspaper on a flat work surface.

Lightly sprinkle the newspaper with water.

Loosely roll the newspaper.

Tie each end of the newspaper roll just tight enough to keep the newspaper in the form of a roll.

Sprinkle the newspaper roll with water.

Place the earwig trap in indoor or outdoor areas that you have spotted the nasty bugs, including basements, crawl spaces, under decks, in sheds or rooms.

Leave the trap overnight. The earwigs will crawl in and make themselves comfortable.

The next morning pick up the earwig trap with a small plastic trash bag.

Let the trap fall into the bag.

Tightly tie the top of the trash bag and toss it in the garbage.

This will also work with corrugated cardboard.

Another ear-wig Trap

Take the lid off a disposable glass jar such as a pickle jar or old jelly jar.

Fill the jar about half to three quarters of the way with canola oil.

Leave your ear-wig trap in areas inside and outside the house where you have seen ear-wigs.

Let the jars stay in the area overnight.

In the morning, put the lid back on the ear-wig filled jar trap and dispose of it.

This works because ear-wigs are attracted to canola oil.

ear-wigs will climb the jar following their sense of smell and fall into the jar filled with oil. The ear-wigs will not be able to climb back out and will eventually drown.

And Yet Another ear-wig Trap

Save a couple of old, tin pie plates and rinse them. If you don’t have tin pie plates, use an old shoebox or similar sized box.

Almost fill the pie plate or box with sphagnum moss – do not pack the moss in, it should rest loosely in the container.

Use a spray bottle to mist the moss and leave it damp – not wet.

Leave the sphagnum moss filled container overnight in areas that you have spotted ear-wigs.